Question

I’m sure this is straightforward but I cannot find the correct string to get a google result. In VB.NET what is the difference between = (equals sign) and := (colon followed by equals sign)?

Answer 1

The := operator is used to pass arguments by name in VB.Net. For instance take the following code

Sub Foo(p1 As integer, p2 As String)   ..  End Sub  Sub Test()   Foo(p2:='foo',p1:=42) End Sub 

If you look strictly at the types involved here I’ve passed the values out of order. But Because I bound the arguments by name using :=, the compiler will properly pass the values.

The = operator depends on the context in VB.Net. It can be either an assignment or comparison operator. For instance

Dim x = 42 ' Assignment if x = 36 Then   'Comparison above End if